Regeneration of Malmö

Some time ago Malmö was only a city with harbours and heavy industries but after some time the harbour became ineffective so they had to cut it down and Malmö needed a change. So the city moved from heavy industry and harbours to more of a knowledge region and it is still growing. There is also very important thing that affects the development of the city - the bridge between Sweden and Denmark made us very close to the rest of Europe. It takes only 20 minutes to get to Copenhagen. It also means that lot of people come from Copenhagen to work in here and vice versa. So that helped very much to make this region easier to reach, easier to live here and to work here even if you are not Swedish.

We have the University in Lund, which is one of the oldest universities in Sweden and also the University in Helsingborg that close to Malmö. This of course made it easier to become a knowledge region. We keep an eye on international schools as well because we need to get here both professors and highly educated professionals from abroad. Another important area is the knowledge about taking care of the environment. These are some things that have made the South of Sweden became what it is today but have not finished. We are still continuing the process because to move from heavy industry to knowledge base, it is also about starting to think in a new way. And I think this has been one of the hardest part for Malmö - how can we change this, what do we need to do, what do we need to bring in to be able to continue, to get stronger... It is an old town. People have been living here for many years and they were used to completely different environment, so it takes time. It is very difficult for people to change but sometimes you don’t have a choice. Otherwise the South of Sweden would be death. So if you give people opportunity, they will accept it because they need to work to get money. The presence of Sony Ericsson and a couple of big media companies as well helped us because they brought people here. We have also medical industry here.

I think Malmö has grown extremely during the last years and I think that will continue. I think that other smaller media companies will come because they know that the big companies will need publicity, film, webs, they will need digital media of all kinds. And when good small companies will come, other big companies will come as well and this is on-going process. Some companies already came from Stockholm because something exciting is happening here in this region. I have no idea where can Malmö possibly be in another 10 years, but I want it to be known not only in Sweden, but actually for the rest of the world as one of the leading regions for media and new creative areas.

CultureFighter

Louise Månsson

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